Sleeper Sets UNC Official

Don Callahan

01/15/2010

Quinton Alton has scheduled an official visit to North Carolina.

He'll visit Chapel Hill the weekend of Jan. 29.

Alton, a 6-foot-6, 240-pound jumbo athlete from Memphis (Tenn.) Hillcrest, hasn't taken any official visits nor has any other trips scheduled. He is, though, working on scheduling a trip to DI-AA Tennessee State.

Alton says UNC, and many other Division I-A schools, are waiting to receive his ACT score before deciding to offer. He is also hearing from Kentucky, Louisiana Tech, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

If UNC were to offer, Alton says he'd give a verbal commitment.

"I watched them this year and their offense and defense played well," Alton said. "They have a good defensive line coach. And it's the home of Michael Jordan."

Alton says he speaks to someone from UNC almost weekly.

"They're just seeing how I'm doing and letting me know they're interested," Alton said. "Before it was a lot of talk about the [official] visit."

UNC is recruiting Alton as a defensive lineman.

At Hillcrest, Alton started at both defensive end and tight end.

Before this fall, Alton hadn't played a down of football since pee-wee. He spent most of his prep career focused on basketball until deciding to tryout for the football team this past spring.

"I heard there's a better chance of me playing football [in college]," Alton said. "Because there's not a lot of people my height playing football, but in basketball there's a lot of people my height in college."